Professor
Humanities and Social Sciences
Architecture, Historic Preservation, History of Architecture and Art, Numismatics, Indo-Persian Studies, Material Culture, Medieval and Modern History, Languages and Scripts
pushkar.sohoni@iiserpune.ac.in
Pushkar Sohoni received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 2010 for his research on the Deccan sultanates, after which he was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia. He joined IISER Pune in 2016.
Comprehending architecture as a language and language as artefact is at the heart of several of my research projects. Material culture often tells a different story of past societies than textual sources. Architecture is one of the most articulated expressions of material culture, reflecting not just the aspirations and aesthetics of society, but also economic and social realities. The study of historic architecture can be a rich source of history along with other cultural artifacts. At the other end of the scale from buildings are coins, another material medium that has the capacity to inform history. Away from material culture, languages and lore are also artifacts that reveal the past, though reading them requires a different set of methods and skills.
Shown below is a selected list of Publications. See a comprehensive list of Publications here (PDF, 179 KB)
(edited with Narendra Dengle, Minal Sagare, Chetan Sahasrabuddhe), महाराष्ट्रातील वास्तुकला : परंपरा आणि वाटचाल, 2 volumes (मुंबई: महाराष्ट्र राज्य साहित्य आणि संस्कृती मंडळ, २०२४).
(edited with Narendra Dengle, Minal Sagare, Chetan Sahasrabuddhe), Architecture in Maharashtra: Tradition and Journey, 2 volumes (Mumbai: Maharashtra State Board for Literature and Culture, 2024).
Taming the Oriental Bazaar: Architecture of the Market-Halls of Colonial India (New York; Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2023).
(edited with Pika Ghosh) Chakshudana or Opening the Eyes: Seeing South Asian Art Anew (New York; Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2023).
(with Riyaz Latif) Sultanate Ahmadabad and its Monuments: The City of the Muzaffarids (Ahmad Shahis) (New Delhi: Primus Books, 2022).
(edited with Torsten Tschacher) Non-Shia Practices of Muḥarram in South Asia and the Diaspora Beyond Mourning (New York; Oxon: Routledge, 2021).
The Architecture of a Deccan Sultanate: Courtly Practice and Royal Authority in Late Medieval India (London: I.B. Tauris, 2018).
(with Kenneth X. Robbins) Jewish Heritage of the Deccan: Mumbai, the Northern Konkan, Pune (Mumbai: Jaico; Deccan Heritage Foundation, 2017).
Aurangabad with Daulatabad, Khuldabad, Ahmadnagar (Mumbai: Jaico; Deccan Heritage Foundation, 2015).